NEW YORK (AP) — The Boy Scouts' New York chapter said Thursday
that it has hired the nation's first openly gay Eagle Scout as a
summer camp leader, a direct and public challenge to the national
scouting organization's ban on openly gay adult members.

The Boy Scouts' national spokesman, Deron Smith, said there was
no change in that policy, which has been highly divisive.

As for any further response to the New York announcement, Smith
said, "We are looking into the matter."

The challenge to the national headquarters was laid down by the
Boy Scouts' Greater New York Councils, which announced the hiring
of Pascal Tessier, an 18-year-old Eagle Scout. Tessier has been a
vocal advocate of opening the 105-year-old organization to gay
scouts and leaders.

"We received this application from this young man, and we found
him highly qualified on all the merits," board member Richard G.
Mason said by phone. The New York group, like some other local
scouting councils, has said before that it is open to gay
employees.

"We have an anti-discrimination policy, we believe in it very
firmly, and we are executing on it," Mason said.

The national organization changed its policy in 2013 to allow
openly gay youth as scouts, but not adults as leaders, after a
bitter debate over its membership policy. The change took effect
in January 2014.

Ahead of Thursday's announcement, Tessier has been getting legal
advice from prominent lawyer David Boies, whose recent causes
include arguing for recognition of same-sex marriage.

Boise said it was possible that Tessier's hiring could lead to
litigation between the New York chapter and the BSA's national
headquarters, but he expressed hope this could be avoided.

"We all started this with the idea that the best resolution of
this was a resolution based on conciliation and agreement," Boies
said.

"It is certainly a remarkable
development because we now have the first openly gay scout leader
employed by the Boy Scouts," he added. "We hope that is the
beginning of the end, if you will, of the policy
nationwide."

However, national BSA leaders, after wrestling with the
membership policy in 2012 and 2013, have conveyed no interest in
reopening the discussions.

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who became the BSA's
president in May 2014, said at the time that he personally would
have favored ending the ban on gay adults, but he opposed any
further debate after the Scouts' policymaking body upheld the
ban. Reopening the issue, Gates said, "would irreparably fracture
and perhaps even provoke a formal, permanent split in this
movement — with the high likelihood neither side would
subsequently survive on its own."

"This is a watershed moment," Zach Wahls, executive director of
Scouts for Equality, said in a statement. "We are proud to see
such an important Boy Scout council standing up for the full
inclusion of gay members."

When the national Boy Scouts began allowing gay boys as scouts,
liberal Scout leaders and gay rights groups celebrated the shift
but called for allowing gay adults to participate, too.
Conservatives involved with the Scouts, including some churches
that sponsor troops, decried letting any gays — including boys —
participate. Some defected when the ban on gay youth was lifted.

Melia Robinson/Business
Insider

The Boy Scouts of America has
said it doesn't "proactively inquire" about members' sexual
orientation — in effect, a form of "don't ask, don't tell." But
it has expelled adults who were open about it, including a gay
troop leader in Seattle who was removed last year after he
disclosed his orientation during a TV interview.

While some other local Boy Scout councils also have let it be
known they are accepting of openly gay employees, the
103-year-old New York councils' move presents an unusually acute
departure from the national policy. Wahls said it was the first
case he was aware of that a council publicly acknowledged that
one of its adult staffers was gay.

The New York councils serve more than 46,000 young people, in
both boys' scout troops and other programs, such as
pre-professional "explorer" initiatives; some include girls.
About 9,000 boys and girls are expected in its summer camps this
year.

Tessier achieved scouting's highest rank last year. The
Kensington, Maryland, teen said then he was relieved finally to
have his Eagle badge approved by the Scouts' national
headquarters in Irving, Texas.

"Even if I had been kicked out along the way, I wouldn't have
changed anything," he said. "The whole experience was something
worth having, not only for myself but also for all the other
people involved — and for all the people it affects."